Page 98 of The Summer I Destroyed You

“Me,” she says, and my stomach drops. “No, not in the way you’re thinking, though it’s flattering that despite my intellect, you still think my primary value rests between my legs. I agreed to come to work for him rather than trying to get him to buy Inspired Building. It’s not entirely what I wanted, but the executive board will realize how useless Charles is without me and fire him anyway, and that’s the part that mattered most.”

“And the illegal part?”

She sighs. “There are potentially some conflict-of-interest issues here. It looks pretty bad that Charles’ project now belongs to my new employer, but Damien thinks he can finesse it.”

“I don’t love that you’re now calling him Damien,” I growl.

She laughs as she climbs to her feet. “Seriously, Liam? I just gave up all my plans and put myself in a legally questionable situation, and all you can focus on is the fact I’m calling my boss by his first name?”

I stand and pull her toward me with my hands on her hips, letting my forehead press to hers.

She gave up everything for me. She gave up every plan for her future and the town’s future, all so I could have this thing I wanted. “Why’d you do it?”

She shrugs a shoulder. “It was the thing you wanted most.”

“Em,” I say quietly, pressing my lips to her head, “it hasn’t been the thing I wanted most for quite a while now.”

I can’t see her face, but her fingers tighten on my shirt, and I get the feeling she’s smiling.

We walk toward Harrison, waiting in the building’s lobby with the redhead who brought him the offer from the back of the room.

“Now you’ve done it,” the woman says to Em. She holds up her phone, where a series of all-caps texts litter the screen. “Charles is going fucking nuts.”

“How would you feel about working for Damien Ellis’s company instead?” Em asks her, which is when I finally realize this must be her assistant, Stella. “I’m still going to need someone to fire people for me.”

“I do have a lot of experience at that now,” she replies. She nods toward me. “Is this the hot contractor?”

Em sighs as she turns my way. “Just for the record, I didn’t call you that. Julie called you that.”

Stella yawns and rolls her eyes. “It was lovely to meet you both,” she says to Harrison before locking eyes with Emmy. “I’m going to my hotel to sleep. And you’ve been making it clear for months that you thought he was hot. Stop lying.”

She walks away, and I glance at Harrison. “I still don’t understand how this happened. How are you involved in all this? Do you work for Ellis too?”

He fights a smile. “I’m involved because your girlfriend here burst into my office yesterday morning when she couldn’t get a call through and demanded I drop everything to help get the injunction. And then I’m pretty sure she flew down to LA and did the same thing to Damien Ellis.”

“He has bodyguards,” Em counters with a roll of her eyes. “You can’t just burst into his office.”

I laugh. “So what exactly did you do?”

She raises a shoulder. “I don’t love the way you’re assuming it was something obnoxious. I snuck through a restaurant and interrupted him during a meeting.”

“You’ve got a live one, Liam,” Harrison says, glancing from Em to me. “But since I, too, have been awake all night, I’m going back to bed. Let’s catch up soon.”

“We want to meet this mystery girlfriend of yours at some point!” I call after him, and his smile is slightly troubled as he nods and waves goodbye.

“So does this mean you’ll be based out of LA?” I ask Emmy as we walk outside after him.

She shakes her head. “Damien said I could stay in New York and fly out a few times a month. I was thinking I’d stay here a few more weeks just to help you get the money taken care of, though.”

“Or,” I counter, stopping in place to face her, pulling her hands into mine, “you could just stay with me. For good.”

“But I hate Elliott Springs.”

“Maybe,” I reply, “but you love me.”

“Whatever.” Her smile is wide. “Maybe. I guess you’re okay.”

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